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Two rival cholesterol-lowering injections from Sanofi and Amgen have been recommended by Britain's healthcare cost watchdog after the manufacturers offered special discounts to the country's state-run health service...Sanofi's Praluent (alirocumab)...and Amgen's Repatha (evolocumab) are both so-called PCSK9 medicines...The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence said in draft guidance on...that both drugs could be considered for use by people whose cholesterol is still not under control despite trying other treatments...It stressed that the medicines would only be cost-effective with the promised discounts...Both drugs cost more than 4,000 pounds ($5,780) per patient a year in Britain. That is already a lot less than their U.S. list price of around $14,000, but Sanofi and Amgen have committed to discount the British price by a further undisclosed amount for the UK National Health Service

France will press its G7 partners this month to launch an "irreversible" process to control the prices of new medicines, part of a global drive to make life-saving drugs more affordable...President Francois Hollande said in March he would push for the international regulation of drugs prices when he meets other G7 leaders in Ise-Shima, Japan on May 26-27...We need to initiate this process with firmness, and the president wants it to be irreversible...G7 nations are home to most of the leading drug makers and while governments are keen to tackle rising health costs they may be reluctant to pitch themselves against their own pharmaceutical industries...G7 delegations have begun initial talks on the issue but no one expects a breakthrough in the near future...

Have you ever wondered how to get rid of an unfinished bottle of prescription drugs?...Don't throw it in the trash or flush it down the toilet, advises the Drug Enforcement Administration. Those methods of dumping your pills can actually be a safety hazard...Instead, Americans with expired, unused and unwanted prescription drugs can bring them for disposal at drop-off centers nationwide during Drug Take-Back Day, which takes place this year on Saturday, April 30...Drop-off sites will be open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can find one near you by going to the DEA's Diversion Control website. The service is free and anonymous...Only pills and patches will be accepted. The DEA will not take liquids, needles or sharps...The 10 previous take-back events have collected more than 5.5 million pounds (more than 2,750 tons) of pills...

State lawmakers are poised to make Hawaii one of a handful of states that allow psychologists to prescribe medication in hopes of increasing access to mental health services...The...bill would allow psychologists to prescribe medication if they undergo special training. It sets requirements including 400 hours of training, supervision of 100 patients and passing an exam created by the American Psychological Association...So far, psychologists in the Department of Defense can prescribe medication, along with those in New Mexico, Louisiana and Illinois. Just this week, lawmakers in Iowa approved a similar bill. Supporters of the Hawaii bill say those states can serve as a model for increasing access to mental health care...Outreach workers say Hawaii is in the midst of a mental health crisis. More Hawaii residents die by suicide than in car accidents, according to the Hawaii Department of Health...But opponents including the American Psychiatric Association and the Hawaii Medical Association say the bill would put Hawaii residents with mental illness at serious risk. They say some psychologists might not have the proper medical training needed to safely prescribe drugs that can cause deadly reactions, especially when mixed with other medications...

The Colombian health ministry plans to override a patent that Novartis holds on its widely used Gleevec cancer treatment, the latest clash between the pharmaceutical industry and some governments over intellectual property and access to medicines...The move...could prompt the government patent office to grant a so-called compulsory license to allow a generic company to make a lower-cost version of the drug...Compulsory licenses allow generic drug makers to make low-cost versions of brand-name medicines without the consent of the company holding a patent...a Colombian government committee explained that issuing licenses to other companies would be in the public interest by widening access and saving health care dollars. Issuing a license would "restore competition for this product in the Colombian market,"..."A Declaration of Public Interest leading to a compulsory license should never be used as a mechanism to force price negotiations,"..."This runs counter to the spirit and intent of a compulsory license and its legal framework, and would create a damaging precedent that could apply to all patent-covered innovations — pharmaceutical or otherwise."

Federal officials say a Reno-area physician is among nine people, including several employees of a local auto dealership, accused of running in an illegal prescription drug "pill mill" distribution business...Dr. Robert Rand was arrested Friday...Richard Winston "Richie" West II, the son of a Reno auto dealer, was among the eight other defendants arrested...the investigation targeted the distribution of prescription opioid medications including oxycodone...

A bill to have the nation's largest Medicaid program cover comprehensive medication management services by pharmacists and primary care physicians emerged from a committee hearing on April 5...In the past few years, we have added millions of Californians into Medi-Cal, making the effective management of the quality and cost of care an absolute necessity...CMM is a smart, important innovation to help meet these goals...CMM, according to California Assembly Bill 2084, is "the process of care that ensures each beneficiary's medications...are individually assessed to determine that each medication is appropriate for the beneficiary, effective for the medical condition, and safe given the comorbidities and other medications being taken, and [that] all medications are able to be taken by the patient as intended."...Absent from the bill, however, was any requirement for Medi-Cal to pay pharmacists for providing healthcare services or for Medi-Cal managed care plans to credential pharmacists as providers...pharmacists' strongest support comes from the rural areas of California, where access to healthcare is more difficult than in the urban centers of the state...

Johnson & Johnson must pay $55 million to a 62-year-old South Dakota woman who blamed her ovarian cancer on the company’s talcum powder in the second such trial loss this year...State court jurors in St. Louis...awarded $5 million in compensation and $50 million in punitive damages to Gloria Ristesund, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2011 after using J&J’s talc-based feminine hygiene products for almost 40 years...J&J is accused in more than 1,000 lawsuits in state and federal courts of ignoring studies linking its Shower-to-Shower product and Johnson’s Baby Powder to ovarian cancer. Women contend the company knew the risk and failed to warn customers..."Unfortunately, the jury’s decision goes against 30 years of studies by medical experts around the word (world) that continue to support the safety of cosmetic talc,’’...Ristesund had several risk factors for ovarian cancer...That included a family history of cancer, having endometriosis and the fact she had no children...

On April 30th, 2016, local and federal agencies will once again partner together to sponsor the Prescription Drug Round Up event in Washoe County. Since the area’s first event in the fall of 2009, the Round Ups in Washoe County have collected over 1.6 million prescription pills. More than 230,000 of those pills were in categories that are commonly diverted and abused, such as painkillers, depressants and stimulants...Medications – including household prescription and over the counter pills and liquids – can be dropped off at the Round Up event with no questions asked. Citizens are asked to bring medications in their original containers if possible, and may mark out the patient’s name if they wish. Prescription waste or expired/surplus medications from medical offices or pharmaceutical companies or their representatives are not accepted at this event. In addition, volunteers from Northern Nevada HOPES and the Northern Nevada Outreach Team will be collecting residential sharps and providing information to the community about proper syringe disposal...Round Up Locations April 30th 10:00am – 2:00pm:

• Raleys - 18144 Wedge Parkway, Reno
• Walgreens - 10370 N. McCarran Blvd, Reno
• Save Mart– 4995 Kietzke Lane, Reno
• CVS - 680 N. McCarran Blvd, Sparks
• CVS – 5151 Sparks Blvd, Sparks
• Walmart – 250 Vista Knoll Parkway, Reno
• Incline Village Community Hospital – 880 Alder Ave, Incline Village

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc...issued a 2015 financial report that met an important deadline for creditors, revealing new details on a range of financial and legal issues, and it also announced changes to its board...Shares in Valeant fell 4.0 percent to $33.81...and are well down from their all time high of $263.70 in August...The publication of the report satisfies demands from Valeant's creditors, but also shows the difficult road ahead...We think investors should sell on this catalyst since the business is quite weak and faces a number of headwinds...The annual report does not answer some more basic questions about what strategy Valeant will adopt...They continue to dig out of a very troubled situation that will take time...The company...revealed it is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice in North Carolina...relating to the production, marketing, distribution, sale and pricing of three of its life-saving drugs...Massachusetts and New York are also investigating similar issues... Valeant said that seven current board members would not be standing for re-election at its June 14 shareholder meeting...